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Wisconsin 2012. Blue cheddar memories.

Wisconsin politics from the last two years may be like childbirth for you: necessary for life but please – spare the details.

If you’re not too squeamish to reflect on the highlights and lowlights, then welcome to a very non-comprehensive retrospective on the dirt kicked up by GOP, Koch, and Walker Incorporated and kicked back by the hearty citizens of Wisconsin.

There’s no shortage of political drama in the dairy state, and thankfully, there’s now an overabundance of bloggers ready to document it. So I’ll be spending more time on another cool Wisconsin project in the year to come. Watch this space for more details.

Well wishes to you and yours in the new year. May your ice always clink, may your beer stay fresh and local, and may your fellow Badgers remain ever fierce.

A three judge panel ordered attorneys hired by the GOP-dominated Wisconsin legislature to cooperate IMMEDIATELY with their orders instead of filing frivolous lawsuits and continuing to employ “sandbagging” and “hide-the-ball trial tactics”.

There would be some alterations, and some fines levied, and some shaming, but essentially, their redistricting handed the state legislature to their party and shut out the Democrats.

Protesters from either side of the political spectrum discuss hunting in Hurley Wisconsin before a hearing on a proposed mine in the Penokees.

“The legislation, AB 426, was introduced at the request of a Florida-based mining company that wants to open up a large taconite mining and processing operation in southern Ashland County on the Iron County border. …
Our governor has made a really big deal about “outside agitators” in regards to the protests that happened in and around the capital last year. Wouldn’t a Florida-based company be considered at least an “outsider”?

We know you have said repeatedly that you would not run for public office in 2012, and we have tried repeatedly to respect and honor that. But over and over again the idea comes sailing back, that the one person who would be best for Wisconsin in this exceptional historical moment, for so many reasons, is you….

“Early this week Walker will indulge the Milwaukee County D.A. John Chisholm in a “voluntary” chat…

On Wednesday, after shedding his two attorneys, Walker will be fawned over at a conservative fundraiser in Naples, Florida where he can add to the approximately $12 million he’s raised to defend his seat from a recall.”

“GOP legislators were shown two district maps to get them to comply with the Walker-Vos agenda. One was a map of the district they’d get to keep if they complied with Vos’ wishes and went along with the secret pact and the GOP redistricting plan. The other map pretty much ensured that the legislator in question would be out of a job come next election.”

“A government that undermines the very foundation of its existence — the people’s inherent, pre-constitutional right to vote — imperils its legitimacy as a government by the people, for the people, and especially of the people.”
– Wisconsin Circuit Judge Richard Niess

March 14
Women are mad as hell in Wisconsin. The war on women is here.
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“…AB 337/SB 237 opens the door to abstinence-only sex education in public schools, AB 154/SB 92 makes private insurance coverage of abortion illegal, and AB 371/SB 306 restricts abortion by telemedicine, and so doing, makes it fundamentally more difficult for rural women to seek an abortion.”

Many of us are disappointed that neither Russ Feingold nor Peter Barca are running for governor. Jessica Vanegeren wrote in the Cap Times last week of a “palpable lack of enthusiasm among many voters for any of [Walker’s] potential opponents.”

“AP’s Scott Bauer and Todd Richmond – the very same author of that “agitator” article – had a hand in expelling Arthur from the ranks of the Capitol press corps, effectively ensuring he would have no ability to videotape the Wisconsin Assembly.”

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Scott Walker’s summit: Brats, beer, and bullshit
“I want people to see that we’re not gone. I want punks like Suder over here to see so he knows that we’re here for when he runs in the fall for reelection…” – Marty Beil

Cullen sulked when he didn’t get the committee appointments he wanted from Mark Miller. They kissed and made up by the next Friday. I wonder if getting featured in the documentary “As Goes Janesville” went to Cullen’s head.

The shootings Sunday in a Sikh gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, have affected me very much as they have affected others. I am sad, shocked, stricken. Coming so soon on the heels of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado, it’s hard not to feel that hate and violence have gained the upper hand…

It is time to dust off all your jokes and posts and signs that reference the forbidden Florida uterus, the banned “vagina” of Michigan, and preposterous transvaginal probes because campaigns are going to be talking social issues whether they like it or not.

Madison Teachers Inc. Executive Director John Matthews announced on WTDY today that the Judge Colas’ ruling on Act 10 and Act 32 takes Wisconsin right back to January of 2011 – before Walker “dropped the bomb” on public unions in Wisconsin.

Dearest reader, you can lose an hour of your life the way I did and watch this debate. Or you can save yourself the trouble and simply imagine an educated and compassionate woman trying to reason with a belligerent old man who has staggered onto her front lawn.

What they don’t understand—refuse to understand—is that living in a civilized society has to mean that we have have a vested interest in what happens to each other. It means acknowledging that your well-being, or lack of it, affects me, and that I’m willing to invest in our collective well-being.